Putting an emphasis on the trenches in their first draft entering the Mike Macdonald era, the Seattle Seahawks invested three of their eight picks on offensive linemen, including snagging UConn guard Christian Haynes in the third round as a potential day one starter.

Considering Seattle lost all three of its interior starters from last season in free agency, starting with four-year starting left guard Damien Lewis, the shift towards the line of scrimmage shouldn’t have come as a surprise. Luckily for general manager John Schneider, he has an asset at his disposal that most NFL teams can’t rival in Hall of Famer Steve Hutchinson, who serves as a football consultant for the front office and actively takes part in pro scouting.

Having witnessed Hutchinson’s fantastic NFL career and building a strong relationship with him dating back to his time as a scout for the Seahawks, Senior Bowl director Jim Nagy believes his presence gives the organization a tremendous advantage evaluating the offensive line, which unfortunately wasn’t a strong suit for the scouting department during most of Pete Carroll’s tenure as head coach.

“They’re lucky to have Hutch as part of that scouting department now, that is an unbelievable resource for them.” Nagy said during an interview on the Locked On Seahawks podcast. “Not all players who scout are great scouts. But just talking offensive linemen over the years with Hutch, he knows exactly what he’s looking at. He’s really dialed into the makeup of these players.”

Since Hutchinson, who earned All-Pro honors seven times in his illustrious career, joined the scouting department prior to the 2020 season, Seattle has found more success selecting quality offensive linemen via the draft. In his first year back with the organization, Lewis arrived as a third-round pick out of LSU and immediately earned a spot in the starting lineup at left guard. Prior to bolting for Carolina in March, he started 61 games in four seasons with the franchise.

With only three picks in the 2021 draft, Hutchinson carried a strong voice in Seattle’s decision to select of Stone Forsythe in the sixth round. Thrust into action for eight starts at right tackle in 2023, the former Florida standout has developed into a solid reserve swing tackle as he enters the final year of his rookie deal, providing good value for a late day three pick.

Two years ago, the Seahawks reinvented their offensive line by selecting tackles Charles Cross and Abraham Lucas, installing them as Week 1 starters and only the third pair of rookie tackles to open a season starting for an NFL team since 1970. Though injuries marred Lucas’ second season, both players remain foundational pieces for the offensive line moving forward, while center Olu Oluwatimi and guard Anthony Bradford, who were drafted in 2023, will have a chance to carve out long-term starting roles this summer.

As Nagy noted, Hutchinson has continued to swing a big stick for Seattle’s scouting department, spending extensive time visiting with line prospects this past fall as well as at the Senior Bowl.

“When you get a Steve Hutchinson coming to your school, you’re not going to treat him like every other scout on the road right?” Nagy said. “I’m surprised more teams haven’t done that with legendary players because these schools roll out the red carpet for Hutch when he goes in. Not only does he get to watch the guy practice and watch tape like all the other scouts, I’m sure he sits there for however long as he wants to sit there and watch tape and talk football with them. So you know it’s a great resource for John [Schneider].”

Having done his homework on the road meeting and speaking with numerous prospects, Schneider leaned heavily on Hutchinson’s expertise and opinion throughout draft weekend. As everyone in the room sweated out the process waiting to pick at 81 overall, per Seahawks.com, the esteemed general manager turned to Hutchinson and asked him what he thought of Haynes.

In response, Hutchinson told Schneider he thought Haynes was going to be a “really good [expletive] player,” and moments later, the Seahawks turned his name in as the selection. With the Hall of Famer actively involved throughout the process entering a busy day three of the draft, the team later added Utah guard Sataoa Laumea and Findlay tackle Michael Jerrell in the sixth round, adding more depth and upside to the offensive line.

Per Nagy, who reached out to Hutchinson after the draft concluded, the consultant couldn’t have been happier with the trio of linemen Seattle landed despite not having a second round pick due to the Leonard Williams trade from last October.

“I know he liked Christian Haynes,” Nagy said, again referencing Hutchinson’s presence as an underrated move for the Seahawks front office. “He was fired up after the draft after those three guys. I texted him and he was excited about all of the offensive linemen they took.”

Looking towards the 2024 season and beyond, the Seahawks have plenty of questions left to address along the offensive line with a new coach in Scott Huff taking over. After missing 11 games last season, Lucas underwent offseason knee surgery and likely won’t be back on the field until the start of training camp at the earliest, while Cross has yet to take the jump towards becoming a top-10 left tackle as the organization envisioned when they drafted him ninth overall two years ago.

In the interior, with three starting jobs left to fill, Oluwatimi has just one career start under his belt and Bradford endured a rocky stretch of play starting 10 games as a rookie last season. It remains to be seen whether either of them will emerge as a viable long-term option, but veteran center Nick Harris and Haynes will be ready to push them for a starting spot right away, while Laken Tomlinson should provide a steady stop gap at left guard for Seattle with Laumea developing behind him.

Given the youth and lack of experience overall up front, time will tell if the Seahawks can finally assemble a cohesive offensive line that becomes a strength for the team. But unlike most of the 2010s where the franchise struggled to draft and develop linemen, with Hutchinson leaving a major imprint on the construction of the group and Huff ready to make his mark, there’s no shortage of optimism and excitement about what the unit can potentially become.

It has­n’t been a month since Pres­i­dent Biden head­lined two fundrais­ing recep­tions in the Seat­tle area and already Vice Pres­i­dent Kamala Har­ris has done the same. 

Mon­ey is the moth­er’s milk of pol­i­tics, the say­ing goes, and pres­i­den­tial cam­paigns in this day and age demand a lot of it. Accord­ing­ly, the entire pur­pose of Har­ris’ quick trip up from Cal­i­for­nia to the Pacif­ic North­west was fundrais­ing. She stepped off Air Force Two, zipped over to West Seat­tle for one recep­tion, then prompt­ly left for a sec­ond in down­town Seat­tle, then swift­ly returned to Boe­ing Field for a flight back to California.

Unlike their pre­de­ces­sors, the Biden-Har­ris admin­is­tra­tion allows the press to send a rep­re­sen­ta­tive to these closed-door cam­paign fundrais­ing events. For this trip, The Seat­tle Times’ Claire With­y­combe was tasked with send­ing reg­u­lar updates (known in media par­lance as pool reports) to the White House press corps. 

In her first dis­patch, she described the scene where she await­ed Har­ris’ arrival: “The home where the fundrais­er is being held is on a qui­et street in West Seat­tle. The VP’s vis­it has gen­er­at­ed some excite­ment among the neigh­bors, but as of 3 PM, there were no crowds on the near­by block. Guests are stand­ing and chat­ting in the back­yard of the home, which has an impres­sive, panoram­ic view of Puget Sound. A few boats are glid­ing through the water. Guests stand near cock­tail height tables cov­ered in pale green table­cloths. I am in the garage, where cater­ing staff are prepar­ing and send­ing out an array of savory appe­tiz­ers, includ­ing crab cakes, short­rib and hon­eyed feta toast.”

At 4:02 PM, with motor­cy­cles rum­bling, Har­ris’ motor­cade pulled up at the home of Melis­sa and Peter Evans, to cheers from the neigh­bors. Har­ris waved to them on her way into the fundrais­er. About a half hour lat­er, she began her observ­able remarks.

Har­ris told the small gath­er­ing of donors that the stakes of the elec­tion are high and momen­tum is on the Biden campaign’s side.

“In this re-elect, lis­ten, guys, we’re gonna win,” Har­ris said. “We may have bloody knuck­les when it’s over, but we’re gonna win and our coun­try is worth fight­ing for.”

Har­ris added that this piv­otal 2024 pres­i­den­tial elec­tion is not about what team you’re root­ing for but “what kind of coun­try we want to live in.”

“We believe in the promise of Amer­i­ca,” she said. “And we know that in order for us to achieve that promise and make it real we have to fight for it.”

Har­ris empha­sized that the out­come of the elec­tion will impact peo­ple around the world. She warned that if Trump is elect­ed and Con­gress passed a nation­al abor­tion ban, Trump would sign it, where­as Biden would veto a nation­al ban. She tout­ed the Biden admin­is­tra­tion’s work to cap insulin costs for seniors and called the con­trast between the pri­or regime and the Biden admin­is­tra­tion “extreme.”

Har­ris’ remarks last­ed for a lit­tle less than thir­teen minutes.

Not long after that, around 5 PM, the motor­cade was rolling again. Peo­ple lined the blocks near the fundrais­er, hold­ing cell phones and waving.

With roads closed to accom­mo­date the motor­cade, the trip down­town took less than twen­ty min­utes, about the same length of time that the trip to West Seat­tle took. For­tu­nate­ly for Seat­tle Mariners fans attend­ing the sec­ond to last game of the home­s­tand, first pitch had already been thrown an hour before­hand and the Mariners were on their way to a 9–0 vic­to­ry over the Los Ange­les Angels of Anaheim. 

Har­ris’ entourage pulled up to the West­in around 5:16 PM. 

Har­ris’ observ­able remarks began around 5:40 PM. She spoke from a podi­um with Amer­i­can and Wash­ing­ton State flags behind her. Her audi­ence for this sec­ond Vic­to­ry Fund recep­tion num­bered about one hun­dred and twen­ty peo­ple.

The Vice Pres­i­dent repeat­ed sev­er­al of the same com­ments from ear­li­er in the day at the Evans­es’ home about the high stakes of the elec­tion, oth­er coun­tries look­ing to the Unit­ed States as a role mod­el, the neces­si­ty of defend­ing repro­duc­tive rights, and cap­ping the costs of insulin for seniors. 

But at this recep­tion she also dis­cussed the Biden administration’s work on the econ­o­my, cit­ing “his­toric” low employ­ment and new man­u­fac­tur­ing jobs.

She char­ac­ter­ized the choice as super clear, declar­ing that many things in the world and in the coun­try are “com­plex and nuanced” but Novem­ber of ‘24 is “bina­ry.”

“There’s two choic­es. And let’s be clear, if you pull up the split screen, what we’re look­ing at,” Har­ris said. “On one side, you’ve got a for­mer pres­i­dent who open­ly prais­es dic­ta­tors and said he’d be a dic­ta­tor on day one, who has essen­tial­ly said he will weaponize the Depart­ment of Jus­tice against his ene­mies, polit­i­cal ene­mies, who has open­ly talked about how proud he is of what he did in undo­ing the pro­tec­tions of Roe v. Wade.”

“On the oth­er side, you have Joe Biden and our admin­is­tra­tion, which has done trans­for­ma­tive work, which the his­to­ry books, if not the pun­dit­ry right now, will show has been his­toric in terms of what we have done to strength­en and grow the Amer­i­can econ­o­my and invest in the future of our nation.”

The Vice Pres­i­dent also addressed the issue of med­ical debt, say­ing that it affects so many peo­ple and it’s usu­al­ly incurred because of a med­ical emergency.

“What we are say­ing that med­ical debt can­not be used in your cred­it score,” she said.

Har­ris’ remarks were inter­rupt­ed on two sep­a­rate occa­sions by pro­test­ers opposed to Israel’s mil­i­tary oper­a­tions in the Gaza Strip. 

The first, in a red shirt, stood up and yelled what sound­ed to With­y­combe like “Chil­dren are being buried in Rafah,” then was escort­ed out of the room.

“I appre­ci­ate your right to express what is right­ly a con­cern… we are work­ing to end this war as soon as pos­si­ble. Thank you, thank you, thank you,” said Harris. 

After the pro­test­er left, she said: “And that’s why we’re fight­ing for our democ­ra­cy. That’s exact­ly why we’re fight­ing for our democracy.”

Soon after, a sec­ond pro­tes­tor stood up and said: “Vice Pres­i­dent, when will you stop send­ing weapons to Israel?”

“Thank you, I’m talk­ing now,” Har­ris said as the pro­tes­tor kept try­ing to interrupt.

“You can stop this geno­cide Vice Pres­i­dent, you can stop this geno­cide,” the pro­tes­tor assert­ed. They were also removed from the reception.

The Vice Pres­i­den­t’s remarks last­ed around nine­teen min­utes and con­clud­ed at 6 PM.

Har­ris returned to Boe­ing Field short­ly there­after, con­clud­ing her trip to Seattle. 

SEATTLE (AP) — J.P. Crawford hit a grand slam, Bryce Miller struck out nine in six smooth innings and the Seattle Mariners beat the Los Angeles Angels 9-0 on Saturday.

Seattle Mariners 9, Los Angeles Angels 0: Box Score

Miller (5-5) allowed just three hits for the Mariners, who lead the AL West on June 1 for the first time since 2003. They have won seven straight home series and six of their last seven games overall. Seattle (33-27) is a season-high six games over .500.

“That was a fun ballgame, it really was,” manager Scott Servais said.

Seattle got nine hits, including three from Julio Rodríguez, and two home runs — a day after firing bench coach and offensive coordinator Brant Brown.

“I think we’re just freeing things up,” Servais said, “and I know that it’s been a point of emphasis over the last couple of days. Let’s free these players up, let’s talk about and really focus on what they do well and playing to their strengths.”

Miller gave up leadoff singles in the first and second, but after switching up his strategy to throw more four-seam fastballs and breaking pitches, he allowed just one more hit and never permitted a runner past second base.

“Yeah, like, the second inning, I don’t know where the fastball went, but I lost it,” Miller said.

“I guess it fell out of my pocket or something, but we found it between innings.”

It was the second-year right-hander’s 11th career game with six or more innings and three or fewer hits allowed, and the ninth time this season he’s held an opponent to two or fewer earned runs. His eight quality starts bring the Mariners’ major league-leading total to 36.

Angels starter Reid Detmers (3-6) set up Crawford’s fourth-inning slam, a line drive to right field, with a pair of walks that loaded the bases. He yielded four hits and five earned runs with three strikeouts and four walks in 3 2/3 innings.

Video: Seattle Mariners SS J.P Crawford belts grand slam vs Angels

After the game, Detmers was demoted to Triple-A Salt Lake.

While not known for his power, Crawford is known for his confidence, and the shortstop had little doubt he would produce runs in his fourth-inning at-bat. He’s batting .650 with three grand slams and 34 RBIs with the bases loaded since the start of 2023.

“I was just trying to be quick to the ball and not do too much,” Crawford said. “He threw me (a curveball) on the previous at-bat before and I got a feel for it, then just reacted and it went over. Thankfully, the roof was closed.”

Cal Raleigh hit a two-run double to cap a four-run sixth. Luke Raley had a solo homer and Rodríguez added his second RBI single of the game. The star center fielder has reached base safely in eight straight games after a slow start.

Raley rakes 💪 #TridentsUp pic.twitter.com/ma6XYaXcU3

— Seattle Mariners (@Mariners) June 2, 2024

PURE BLISS